We are rapidly approaching a situation in this country where the majority of Americans will not be able to acquire the basic necessities for life. With tens of millions of people unemployed, living in poverty and struggling just to make ends meet, its a wonder that the system hasnt already collapsed in on itself.

For the time being government social safety nets have kept the restless at bay by providing assistance for food, medical care and housing. In fact, nearly half of Americans receive some form of benefit or distribution from the government on a monthly basis.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is relentlessly expanding our monetary base while the US government borrows unfathomable amounts of money just to stay afloat and maintain a perception of stability. This has led to significant price increases in the things Americans need to survive  food, medicine and energy.

We get tornadoes here in this part of Texas, plus tornadoes are sometimes within hurricanes.

We don't have basements here, wish we did but our water table is so high here, you'd have a swimming pool instead of a basement. My downstairs bathroom is the safest room in the house so that is where the Yorkie and I go with some big cushions to put over us. I keep a survival backpack in that room as well.

I truly admire your grit. I got to have my basement in order to weather the storms during tornado season. I wouldn’t want to hang around during a hurricane either.

Of course, I try to forget all about the New Madrid Fault Line. We had an earthquake around 3.5 or 4 a little while back. I didn’t even realize it at first.

I thought that the helicopter was just flying too low and causing some reverberations. By the time I understood what was happening and jumped up - it was over.

Where we are is better than being in St. Louis or New Madrid, but not nearly as good as where I grew up. If I had it to do over, I probably would not have moved here for a lot of reasons only one of which is the weather.

63
posted on 04/06/2013 12:47:04 AM PDT
by greeneyes
(Moderation in defense of your country is NO virtue. Let Freedom Ring.)

I don’t know how to reply all so you may want to resend this. I completely agree with you. Governor Christie and the power companies made damn sure to get power and gas to the inner cities right away. Newark was down for just a few hours. The only reason we had three days before things got out of hand was because I live in a rural area of NJ (yes, they exist). Once the crowds found out that 2 or 3 stations by us had generators and could dispense gas it was utter chaos. I went to make a quick run to town and it took me 4 hours to get back because the hordes had descended on this one gas station and there was no way to turn around. I learned a lot that day.

68
posted on 04/06/2013 7:55:08 AM PDT
by MattinNJ
(It's over Johnny. The America you knew is gone. Denial serves no purpose.)

Oh, and a new time is open us. The hordes used twitter to broadcast which gas stations had fuel. There was a hash tag #njgas that directed thousands of people to these stations. That power could be used for good or evil

69
posted on 04/06/2013 8:05:37 AM PDT
by MattinNJ
(It's over Johnny. The America you knew is gone. Denial serves no purpose.)

You might want to consider a Tri-fuel kit for your generator. I got mine from US Carborator. I can now run my Generac on gasoline, propane, or natural gas. A 100 lb tank of propane will run my house for about 3-1/2 days and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than gasoline at 4 bucks a gallon.

70
posted on 04/06/2013 8:17:58 AM PDT
by Lurker
(Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)

I dont know how to reply all so you may want to resend this. I completely agree with you. Governor Christie and the power companies made damn sure to get power and gas to the inner cities right away. Newark was down for just a few hours. The only reason we had three days before things got out of hand was because I live in a rural area of NJ (yes, they exist). Once the crowds found out that 2 or 3 stations by us had generators and could dispense gas it was utter chaos. I went to make a quick run to town and it took me 4 hours to get back because the hordes had descended on this one gas station and there was no way to turn around. I learned a lot that day.

Oh, and a new time is open us. The hordes used twitter to broadcast which gas stations had fuel. There was a hash tag #njgas that directed thousands of people to these stations. That power could be used for good or evil

To back up what Matt tells us, the rioters and looters in London in 2011 did the exact same thing. They used Blackberry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook to coordinate the riots and warn each other when the police were coming and where.

I think it's about time I post something I wrote about it all...

73
posted on 04/06/2013 9:01:04 AM PDT
by Old Sarge
(We are officially over the precipice, we just havent struck the ground yet...)

It sure does. We have 25 gallons of Sta-Bilized premium gas stored which we rotate through annually. But for long term generator fuel, it’ll be propane. We are saving to have a NG feed from the house installed but that needs to be done professionally.

That way we will have 3 possible fuel sources for electrical power for our home.

74
posted on 04/06/2013 9:40:10 AM PDT
by Lurker
(Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)

I think the American fighting spirit cannot be overcome by any enemy, foreign or domestic, however one of the major weaknesses I’ve observed is that many of the self reliant, self prepared, or heavily armed and trained in our midst tend to be loners.

Finding them will be dangerous once the SHTF, because at that point they will rather shoot you where you stand in order to protect themselves, than to get to know you and see if you prove a reliable ally or a drain on their resources or outright threat.

That said I love you all and when the SHTF, I will at least ask the question, possibly at gun point, “what is a Freeper?”

If you can’t answer that question, it’s strike one.

75
posted on 04/06/2013 2:37:06 PM PDT
by Bshaw
(,A nefarious deceit is upon us all!)

Adaptation shows us that some frogs will be resistant to the higher temperatures and will hop out of the pot. I think of these frogs as the saviors of the Republic. You will find many of them within the confines of this forum.

It may be our only hope.

77
posted on 04/06/2013 8:10:22 PM PDT
by Bloody Sam Roberts
(For me, I plan to die standing as a free man rather than spend one second on my knees as a slave.)

We had two major outages here in Conn recently—Irene (Sep of 2011) and a freak Oct snowstorm (also in 2011). Many places were without power for 8-10 days each, within a month’s time.

My town was out 8 days with Irene. We never lost power for the snowstorm. Our gas stations were *mobbed* because we were the most northern town in eastern Conn with power. Twitter, Facebook, emails, phone calls, whatever. We had people from all over the state getting gas at our local stations.

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